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Presidential Campaign. 


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1872 . 




REPUBLICANISM 


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GRANT OR GREELEY. 


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JEr JUj JUj 'O’ _ezL 

OF 

Nf P. CHIPMAN, 

OF WASHINGTON. D. 0., 


At St. Joseph, Missouri. 


“The election of General Grant secures the ascendency of liberty, justice, and peace. 
It insures that ours shall be henceforth a land of equal rights and equal laws. It makes 
our recent history coherent and logical. It demonstrates that the discomfiture of the re- 
bellion was no blunder and no accident, but the triumph of principle and an added prooi 
that God reigns.” — Horace Greeley, Aug. 15, 1868. 

“Should my views be overruled and General Grant nominated, I hold his election 
infinitely preferable to that of any candidate whom the Democrats may nominate, for a 
Democratic triumph involves a return to power of the great mass of those who for years 
plotted the disruption of our Union.”— Horace Greeley, Aug. 18, 1871. 


Mr. Chairman and Fellow- Citizens : I feel 
that I am not an eotire stranger to you. I was a 
member of the Second Iowa Infantry, which m 
the spring of 1861 took military possession of the 
Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, and by a 
timely distribution of forces along the road, saved 
the northern portion of this great State from pass- 
ing into the control of the enemies of our country 
The fortunes of war afterwards placed me as Chief 
of Staff to Gen. Curtis, who commanded a military 
department of which Missouri formed a part. I 
became acquainted with many of your public men 
and came to know much of the character of your 
people. May I not then claim from you a hearing 
as one not wholly unconcerned for your prosperity ? 

The years that have rolled away since I first 
stood upon your soil as a soldier of my country, 
have been terrible years of devastating war. The 
best blood of the State, the flower of your youth 
fought either for the “stars and the stripes,” or 
the “stars and the bars,” profoundly believing 
that upon the issue hung the fate of the greatest 
people on the globe. Over 5,000 of these per- 
ished in defense of the old fleg, while more than 
that number went down with the “lost cause ” 

The rebellion, theD, was to Missouri a reality, 
and her people may well pause before pronounc- 


ing against that great national party, to whose 
steadfast loyalty and devotion to the Union we, 
to day, owe our existence as the leading govern- 
ment of the world. 

It would, perhaps, be impertinent ia me to in- 
termeddle in your local conflicts, butcustom, as 
well as a common interest which the citizens of the 
whole country feel in the termination of Presiden- 
tial contests, justify me, I hope, in assuming to 
present to you from my stand-point the duty of the 
hour. 

POLITICAL PARTIES A NECESSITY. 

I am not one of those that deplore the existence 
of political parties. Parties are not only inevita- 
ble, but they are the safeguards of the people’s 
liberties. Parties become odious and dangerous 
only when, through the apathy or indifference of 
the people, they are left to be controlled by schem- 
ing politicians. Political parties are merely vol- 
untary organizations formed to give expression to 
the leading ideas and principles which the great 
body of the people believe to be vital m the man- 
agement of government. 

Rebellion from party and alliance with its ad 
versary may succeed temporarily, as it did in this 
and some other States mainly from locai causes 
but in the very necessity which creates parties for 


2 


national purposes, bolting movements never have 
and never can succeed. The ebb and flow of 
popular opinion is too steady and governed by 
laws too exacting to be changed or turned aside 
for the gratification of individuals or to follow the 
caprices of designing men. 

BUT TWO PARTIES : REPUBLICAN AND DEMO- 

CRATIC. 

Now, my friends, there ara two political parties 
presenting candidates to the people for support 
They are not new to you. They have a history 
and a record with which you ought to be familiar. 
They have confronted each other in three Presi- 
dential contests; they have struggled for Sn&te 
supremacy and control for tvelve years Any 
school-boy will tell you there are but two parties 
existing in this country, and that they are the Re 
publican and Democratic. 

In 1860 the Republican party fought the battle on 
the idea that no more slave territory should be al- 
lowed. The Democrats were defeated, and the 
South made the defeat a casus belli. The head of 
the Democratic party, Mr. Buchanan, then P;esi- 
dent, saw no way to put down the rebellion Air, 
Breckinridge, vice-president and Democratic can- 
didate for President, not only did not see any way 
to put|it down, but did see a way to help inaugu- 
rate it, and himself went over to the rebellion. 

In 1864, the war still flagrant, the Democratic 
party, on an anti war and peace-at-any-price plat- 
form, nominated a retired Union officer, but the 
people preferred Republican., rule, and elected 
Mr. Lincoln. 

In 1868 the Democrats rallied again, and on a 
platform which showed they had not learned any 
thing from the war, nominated an anti war Demo- 
crat, and an ex-officer of the Union army, an old 
anti slavery man who had gone over to the Democ- 
racy. The Republicans commended to the suf- 
frage of the people Gen. Grant, on a platform con- 
sistent with their previous record. Again the peo 
pie sustained the Republican party. Since then 
we have had one Congress elected. In many of 
the States there have been two or more elections. 

I have never heard of there being any considerable 
number of persons operating in any party organ- 
ization outside of these two. Up to the very close 
of the last Congress Democrats voted uniformly 
on all party questions exactly as they always had 
Just before the adjournment of Congress certain 
disappointed, disaffected, ambitious, and so- 
called Reform Republicans met at Cincinnati, not 
as Republicans, but as reformers, and nominated 
Mr. Greeley. Subsequently the Democratic Con- 
vention met at Baltimore, and in defiance of the 
wishes of nine-tenths of the party, adopted Mr. 
Greeley as its nominee. 

Now, no one will for a moment contend that the 
Democratic party changed its principles or its 
purposes in nominating Mr. Greeley any more 
than when they nominated Gen. McClellan m 
1864, or in 1868, when they put Gen. Blair on the 
ticket. No one will argue that the Democratic 
party is dissolved. It exists in every town, coun- 
ty, city and State. I challenge the production of a 
single Democrat who claims to have been con * 
verted by the Baltimore nomination. This much 
conceded, we are then to try these two parties on 


their old merits and demerits, and by no other 
rule can we safely try them. 

REPUBLICANISM VS. DEMOCRACY. 

I cannot, Mr. Chairman, in pursuing the line of 
argument which I have marked out for this occa- 
sion, stop now to present the full record of these 
two parties. I can only glance at a few salient 
points of difference. I grant, sir, the statute of 
limitations runs against the Democratic partv 
prior to the war. The comparison cannot go back 
of that period, for the Republican party did not 
then exist. These two parties are to be judged by 
not only what they did or sought to do, but by the 
spirit and purpose with which they labored. It is 
a part of the history of the rebellion that one sin- 
gle purpose animated the Republican party 
throughout this terrible struggle, and that was the 
restoration of the Union and the establishment of 
national supremacy in all rightful subjects of con- 
trol, as against the vicious doctrine of secession 
or State supremacy. Here was the fundamental 
question on which these two parties divided. 
President Buchanan and his Attorney General, 
Biack, had given the strongest possible expres- 
sion to this Democratic idea, and it was one of the 
legacies of that administration left to Mr. Lin- 
coln. 

Mr. Lincoln, representing the Republican idea, 
called for troops to suppress the rebellion, and 
convened Congress to submit to them the question 
as to the power of the government to maintain its 
integrity. Congress assembled, and began its 
work. It toon became evident that the leaders of 
rebellion not only sought to destroy the Union, but 
that their avowed purpose was to peipetuate 
slavery as a feature of their new government Mr. 
Lincoln, as you all kLOw. fought off ail efforts to 
open war on the system of slavery. Union officers 
issued orders returning slaves to their masters. 
Congress abstained from legislation upon the irri- 
tating subject, ana not until the purposes of the 
rebel government became manifest, and legislation 
upon the subject grew to be a war uecessitv, as 
well as a question of humanity , did the govern- 
« ent atiempu to interfere. The Proclamation of 
Emancipation followed. Numerous acts of Con- 
gress w^ re passed to enforce the proclamation, 
and the freedom of the slave became a Republi- 
can doctrine as a part of the plan for restoring the 
Union. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth 
amendments became a part of our Constitution. 
The war closed, the Union was restored, the 
slaves were free and became citizens, and peace 
returned throughout all our borders. To day 
none rejoice more over these glorious results than 
the unpiejudiced slave owner. No one will ques- 
tion now the necessity which brought all this 
ab >ut, aDd few will doubt the wisdom of the 
policy. But, my friends, this was not accom- 
pliant d without great and untold suffering; it was 
not accomplished alone by overcoming an army in 
the field, but it was done in the face of violent 
and almost treasonable opposition from the Demo- 
cratic p«rty North in and out of Congress. They 
voted against supplying your armies; they voted 
against submitting the proposed amendments to 
the States, and wherever there was a Democratic 
Legislature these amendments were rejected. I 
speak only history to you familiar now to ail. 
Need I go back to remind you of the many and 
beneficent measures which were enacted in the 
midst of the nation’s throes— its acts to aid in the 
construction of a Pacific Railway; its acts extend- 
ing the right to acquire homesteads; its acts fos- 
tering education and agriculture; its acts to pro- 
vide a national currency; its acts to secure all 
persons in their civil rights; its acts encouraging 
telegraphic communication; its acts to relieve and 
protect the freedmen; its acts furnishing relief to 
the destitute people of the South ; its acts to pro- 
vide revenues for the government ; its acts to pay 


3 


bounties and pensions to the soldiers of the war- 
need I speak of these— many of which were bitter- 
ly opposed in Congress by the Democrats— to re 
mind you of the proud record of that party which 
now presents for ihe fourth time a candidate 
pledged to enforce its policy ? No w I declare to 
you that if Democracy means anything to-day it 
means j «st what it has in the past. We have no 
guarantee beyond this We must judge it by its 
acts and its utterances, and thus judging we can- 
not support it unless we are ready to draw a black 
line through this Republican record. 

The Democratic party to day has no distinctive 
policy. We know that many of its leaders assert 
a purpose, should it come into power, to unno the 
legislation which they regard as obnoxious. Judge 
Black, of Pennsylvania, denounces the amend- 
ments to the Constitution as revolutionary, and 
says that the Democratic paity propose ’“then- 
gradual extinction.” The whole aim and object 
of the Democracy, so far as we can judge, are re- 
actionary and destructive. They purpose tearing 
down, rather than building up, the waste places. 
There must be some great and overpowering rea- 
son which would lead the people to reject the 
party which has done so much that is comaienda 
ble, and take up a party which has only thus far 
stood in the way of the nation’s progress. Let us 
advance a step in the argument and see what the 
promise of this Democratic milleniumis. Let us 
see whether the later years of Republican rule give 
token of danger to the country. 

PEACE AND RECONCILIATION, 

It is said that the country needs repose from 
repressive and sectional legislation; that tie Re- 
publican party embodies all the hatred of rebel- 
lion, and cannot legislate in fairness to our fellow- 
citizens of the South, and that cruel and unneces 
sary disabilities are enforced against the people of 
the South, and that, therefore, we must place the 
Democratic party in power. My friends, I deny 
the charge, and I deny that the remedy proposed 
is a wise one. Let us not deceive ourselves. Let 
us look at the facts. What are their disabilities? 
What are these much complained of revolutionary 
and wicked laws? 

DISFRANCHISEMENT. 

We are told that tne people of the South have 
not the right to govern themselves because of dis 
franchisement. What are the facts? The people 
of the United States, by the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment, excluded from holding office certain per- 
sons who had been in rebellion ; but that amend- 
ment deprived no man of the right to vote. This 
was proposed to the States in June, 1866, Would 
any sane man doubt the propriety of excluding 
from office, at that time, men who had just re 
turned from a nostile army? But it provided, 
also, that Congress by a two-thirds vote might re • 
lieve this class from the disability. And Con- 
gress has reli ved them so that to uay there 
are not 300 without fuil citizenship, aud they per- 
sistently refuse to ask amnesty. 

History furnishes no example of such forbear- 
ance as was shown to the conquered South. In 
all countries but ours rebellion nas been followed 
by butcheries, executions and expatriations. 
Russia, Austria, Prussia, England, Spain, 
France, all tell the same bloody story. Not a 
single trial or execution has followed the suppres- 
sion of our rebellion. Not only were lives and 
property spared , but ail special taxes were re- 
moved. The cotton tax was taken off, leaving 
scarcely any other source of revenue from the 
South and this too in face of the fact that the rebel- 
ion had run the expenses of government up from 
lseventy to 300,000,000 of dollars annually, all of 
which was paid by the people of the North * 

This is not all. When the cry of distress came 
up from the South, after the war, a Republican 
Congress appropriated $5,000,000 for their relief; 
ships of war were sent with provisio .s, and after 
wards specific relief was voted by Congress. 

Nor is this all There have been admitted into 
Congress two Senators, both of whom were gene- 
rals in the rebel army, and nineteen in the House 
of Representatives, who were also rebel officers, 
besides one who was a member of the Rebel Con- 
gress, and two who were judges of courts South. 

Here, then, is the exposure of this appeal to 
hate. It is bald hypocrisy for Democrats to pre- | 


tend to be the only friends of the South. The Re- 
publican party have gone to the verge of safety in 
brotherly love and forgiveness. If they have 
erred, it has been in that direction, and not by en- 
forcing cruel legislation. 

KU-KLUX LEGISLATION. 

But the Republican party is assailed, not only 
for disfranchising, but for oppressing the people 
with odious penal statutes. The only ones I know 
of as coming under this head are the so-called Ku- 
Klux acts and thar authorizing the suspension of 
habeas corpus ; the latter has expired by limita- 
tion , I believe. 

The Ku-Klux law grew out of acts of lawless- 
ness, murders and whipping perpetrated by an 
organized band in some of tne Southern States. 
In North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi and Florida over a hundred counties 
were kept in a state of terror; namless atrocities 
were perpetrated; whites and blacks murdered, 
and no relief could be secured from the State 
courts. The people of the Soutn appealed piteous- 
ly to Congress, and the act was passed conferring 
jurisdiction on the United States courts. A large 
number were indicted and convicted; many pleaded 
guilty, and still others remain to be tried. At the 
trial of some of them, t»ie late Attorney General 
Stanbery and Mr. Reverdy Johnson were counsel 
for the prisoners. Both are acting with the Demo- 
cratic party, and their utterances must he admitted 
as importanc. I read from Mr. Johnson’s argu- 
ment to the jury : 

“But Mr. Attorney General has remarked, and would 
have you suppose, that my friend and myself are here 
to defend, to justify, or to palliate the outrages that 
may have been perpetrated in your State by this asso- 
ciation of Ku-Kiux. He makes a great mistake as t© 
both of us. I have listened wi\h unmixed horror to 
some of the testimony which has been brought before 
you. The outrages proved are shocking to numanity; 
they admit of neither excuse nor justification; they 
violate every obligation which law and nature impose 
upon man; they show that the parties engaged were 
brutes, insensible to the obligations of humanity and 
religion. The day will come, however, if it has not al- 
reaay arrived, when they will deeply lament it. Even 
if justice should uot overtake them, there is one tribu- 
nal from whicli there i3 no escape. It is their own 
judgment, that tribunal which sits in the breast of 
every living man— that small, still voice that thrills 
through the heart— the soul of the mind, and, as it 
speaks, gives happiness or torture— the voice of con 
science, the voice of God.” 

Mr. Johnson might well stand appalled at the 
evidence which disclosed 426 murders and over 
2,900 other acts of violence. In the face of these 
facts I leave the Democracy to rail at Congress for 
coming to the relief of the South. Certainly no 
man who respects life and the peace and quiet of 
the people thus persecuted will higgle over the 
constitutionality of the law or split hairs upon the 
question of jurisdiction. 

If the Democratic party are not satisfied with 
this, then I refer them to their candidate for the 
Presidency, Mr. Greeley, who said to them in the 
Tribune , March 14, 1871, while the act was pend- 
ng: 

‘■'•You may carry most of the intervening elections, 
where the issue is not distinctly and vigorously pressed 
home upon the masses, but, when we come to 1872, you 
will assuredly be beaten by the votes of men who are 
not politicians and are now not voting at all. We shall 
only have to drive home the facts which prove your 
complicity in the crimes now convulsing the South, 
and you will inevitably go under. If you succeed in 
defeating legislation to protect the loyal men of the 
South from the crimes to which they are now exposed 
and subjected, youi fourth successive discomfiture in a 
Presidential struggle wili be signal and conclusive. ” 

And aaain, July 12, 1871: 

“I hLd our government, bound by its duty of pro- 
tecting citizens in their fundamental rights to pass and 
enforce laws for the extirpation of the execrable 
Ku-Klux conspiracy. And if it has not the power to 
doit, then 1 say our government is no government, but 
a sham.” 

And I commend them, also, to read his opinion 
as late as January 10, 1872, after the trials. He 
ssys ; 

“But the testimony brought out overwhe med all ar- 
gument, and forty-seven of these wretches confessed 
their crimes in open court, six others were convicted, 
and seventy-two indictments, embracing over 500 per- 
sons, were found. The story of brutality, crime, vio- 
lence and moral degradation made up from the revela- 
tions of the witnesses is too revolting for recital; it is a 


4 


dark chapter in the history of civilization ; it is a burn- 
ing disgrace to the party which organized the consiracy , 
aided and abetted its agents, and did its best to suppress 
the evidence now published to the world. ’ ’ 

REFORM. 

But these aspirants for power, among other of 
their vague demands, sav we need reform. Re 
form from what? Some say reform in the 

CIVIL SERVICE. 

Here, too, we meet them with the record of our 
party, and challenge comparison. What party 
first in this country agitated reform in this direc- 
tion? Whst party first inaugurated a system of 
competitive examination? What President first 
mentioned this reform in messages to Congress? It 
was the Republican party and a Republican Pres- 
ident. 

What do these Liberals mean by assailing the 
Republican party on this ground? Do they not 
know tout the election of Mr Greeley woula result 
iu the removal of every Republic *.n ofii e holder in 
the luna. from least unto greatest, without regard 
for qualification or fitness? Do they not kno w that 
such removal would cost this governor nt millions 
of dollar.- inevitably? Do they not know that un 
oer Giant the law have been enforced and fhe 
revenues have been collected as economically as 
ever before? Let us see 

EXPEN DI ru RES PER CAPITA 
The expenditures per capita on a gold and 
peace oasis under Buchanan during the 

fiscal year ending Judb 30, 1860, were $ 1 S8 

The expenses under Grant f >r the year end- 


ing J uue 30, 1871, were 1 77 

Ex ess under Buchanan 21 


I include in this the co*to? public buildings, which 
under Buchanan were $2,913,371 48. while under 
Grant this amounted to $10,733,759 05, But we 
must of course exclude from toe tstimate those 
expenses of Grant’s administration, which are in- 
cident to the war. Certainly there is not much 
room for reform, here 

REDUCTION OF TAXES. 

But we are loid that taxes are burdensome, and 
we need reform m this direction. Let us see. I 
ask your attention to the table which I shall read, 
giving the estimated reduction of annual internal 
taxation and customs duties under thelaws passed 
by this wicked and extravagant Republican Con- 
gress : 


By act of July 13, 1866 $65,000,000 00 

Bv act of March 2, 1867 40,000 000 00 

By act of February 3, 1868 23 000^000 00 

By act of March 31 and July 20, 1868 45,000,000 00 

By act of July 4, 1870 78,848,827 33 

By act of May 1 and June 6, 1872... 51,823,761 38 


Net total reduction of internal taxes 
and custom duties from Julv 13, 

1866, to June 6, 1872 $303,672,588 71 


That is, the country has been relieved from taxa- 
tion tince 1866 over "$300,000,000 00 What have 
these ardent reformers to say to that? Do they 
want taxes reduced more or less rapidly? Do they 
say definitely what they waat on this subject? 1 
have yet to hear it. The people want definite ideas 
They ought to know jubt what these gentlemen pro- 
pose. 

REDUCTION OF DEBT. 

Perhaps they complain that our debt is not be- 
ing paid off fast enough, or possibly too fast. Let 
me tell you just what has been done in this regard 
since March, 1869, when General Grant took charge 


of our affairs; 

The debt on March 1, 1869, less 

cash in Treasury, was $2,525,463,260 01 

The debt on July 1, 1872, less cash 

in Treasury, was 2,191,486,343 62 


The reduction of the debt in three 
years ana four months was 333,976,916 39 


This is at the rate of over $100,000,000 annually, 
or over $8,000,000 per month. 

It is very difficult for a mind not accustomed to 
contemplate large sums to comprehend this vast 
reduction. Our Liberal fnenos may carp, but 
they can’t wipe out this splendid record. 


REDUCTION OF INTEREST. 

But we must not stop here The debt has still 
further been reduced, and our burdens still fur- 
ther lightened 

The monthly charge for interest on 

debt March 1, 1869, was, $10,532,462 50 

The monthly charge for interest on 
debt July 1, 1872, was 8,665,705 25 


Reduction in monthly interest $ 1,866,757 25 

Reduction is annual interest 22,401,087 00 

This annual saving of interest alone, if invested 
in a sicking fund, and interest on that reinvested 
at five per cent., pavabie an anally, would pay off 
our whole debt of $2,253,251,328 78 in lees than 
thirty-eight years. 

Now, gentlemen, I assert that this great reduc- 
tion of the national debt, coircident with the large 
reduction in cur taxation, is without a parallel in 
the financial history of nations. 

But I must not stop here in this exhibit One 
other featiue and 1 w ill pass to something else. 

PUBLIC CRFDIT. 

I have a table carefully prepared from the books 
of the Treasury snowing ihe fluctuations of nation- 
al ere dit since 1861 I will not, oe'ay you to read 
it. That table shows, howev< r, that from March, 
1861, the close of Mr Buchanan’s administration, 
t » March, 1869, the close of Mr. Johnson’s admin- 
istration, liotw-jihstarioicg the expenditures inci- 
dent to the war, the bon owing power of the gov- 
er meet advanced from 8.14 per cent to 6 43 per 
cent, which is an increase in the borrowing power 
of nearly 27 per cent. 

During the period of President Grant’s adminis- 
tration, from Maich 5, ’69, to July 1, ’72, the 
credit of the government still further advanced 
fiom 6 43 per cent to 5.03 per cent— au increase of 
nearly 28 percent in the borrowing power of the 
government and for the entire decade of 62 per 
cent. 

To put it in another form: The same annual 
piyment of interest which in March, 1869, would 
have enabled tregovernment to borrow $100 would 
now enable it to borrow $128 The same annual 
interest which in March, 1868, would have enabled 
it to borrow $100 would no* enable it to borrow 
$143, The same annual int< rest which in March, 
1861, would have enabled it to borrow $100 would 
now enable it to borrow $162 

Here, my friends, is a biief outline of some of 
the results of Republican administration, and 
which I submit entnie it to your confidence. These 
are the kind of reforms in which the Republican 
party invite your co operation, 

Wnat this Liberal Democratic party would do, 
or what they propose to do if successful, neither 
they or you know. Their advent to power wmuld 
bring chaos in our fbances; would disturb our 
credit abroad and at home, and would shake the 
foundations of public confidence. They can do no 
better than has been done; they might < o worse. 
You know what is being done; you know what is 
proposed in the future. Is it wise to make a 
change? 

I have tried to anticipate what the reformers in- 
tend. lam, as frankiy as I know how, giving you 
the exact condition of public affairs, and I confi- 
dently rest the case thus far to your candid judg- 
ment, If my Democratic-Liberal friend wants 
higher authority, and he wilt trust the judgment 
of his candidate, then I will gratify him by read- 
ing a paragraph from Mr Greeley ’s opinion : 

“The fact that the ^ebt has been steadily and large- 
ly reduced has done more than anything elst to make 
the administration and the party supporting it strong 
and popuiar. So manv millions paid off each month 
are to Gen. Grant’s administration what Union victo- 
ries on hard-fought fields were to Mr. Lincoln’s. No 
financial difficulties beset a rule which is thus amply 
supplied with revenue and using it tor such a purpose. 
Tne f ict stated by the President that the annual bur- 
oen ol the debt is now * 17,00U,00C less than it was when 
he was inaugurated is a perfect Vicksburg to his sup- 
porters. ’’—[Tribune, December 5, 1871. 

What would Mr. Greeley say now if his keepers 
would allow him, at the fact that our annual in- 
terest burden is diminished over $22,400,000 in- 
stead of $17,000,000, He would tell you that this 
is the Appomattox of our financial struggle with 
the national debt. But his friends keep him auiet 
and cry reform, reform l 


5 


INDIAN POLICY. 

Bat possibly our Indian policy is to be reformed. 
Does it need it? 

We know that Gen. Grant’s Indian policy has 
been attacked systematically and denounced as 
visionary. Here in the West where the red man 
has few friends , and where the lawlessness and 
outrages of Indians are exaggerated to inflame the 
people, this policy has been particularly assailed. 
May we not look at the facts? 

During Grant’s administration over 80,000 In- 
dians have been brought to agencies and placed 
under the care of government. Not over 50,000 
(out of 293,000 m the United States, exclusive of 
Alaska; are still roaming beyond the supervision 
of agetts. Within the coming year it Is confident- 
ly believed that all the Indians will be brought in 
on reservations. Over 130,000— nearly half — are 
now supporting themselves upon their own lands, 
receiving nothing from thee government beyona 
interest oa Duiicis given them for lands purchased 
by the governm- nt These lands have be^n sold 
for many times the amount paid for them. It costs 
$2,446,000 to subs st the 113,000 Indians at ageo- 
cies, an av«. rage of $21 50 pi r neaci. 

A force of 900 sginfs, teachers, blacksmiths, 
farmers, mid rs, are engaged m instructing these 
people and aiding t< em in making homes. 

The expense of carrying out this police of feed- 
ing rather than fighting the Indians, and of en- 
couraging them to take up agriculture and civil- 
ized nfe, is about $4,000,000. As a result we 
have had comparative peace and security of life 
and proper y. 

You know that Indian wars are not luxuries to 
be coveted. They co t millions of dollars 

In the report of the Com nissioner o? Indian Af- 
fairs for 1868, I fi d that every Indian warrior 
killed in tne Florida war, the Sioux war ot 
1852-54, ana the Cheyenne war, 1864, cost the gov- 
ernment a million dollars and the lives of twenty 
white men. 

In ihe eloquent language of Secretary Delano: 
5, Let tr ose who from lack of correct information 
are increduous; It t those whose desire tor re- 
venge has been aroused by exaggerated accounts 
of Indian cepredatious ; Jet those who wish to 
change ihe present policy in order to renew again 
the host of faithless agents and contractors to 
plunder the ignorant savage and rob him o. tne 
aid ana benefice ce of the government, ponder 
the°e facts, and answer before God and a Chris 
tian nation whether they will if they can destroy 
the present policy of peace, justice and progress 
and res ore the former syttem of cruelty, rob- 
bery, inhumanity, war, bloodshed and crime ” 

Now, my friends, I have gone over the whole of 
our dome tic policy so far as itoccurs to me. I have 
tried to do this fairly, and I challenge any one to 
point out defects which will warrant a revolution 
in that po icy. Much of this policy has been car 
ried out in the face of inconceivable difficulties 
and against the open hostility of that party which 
to-day is grasping for the reigns of government 
Is it remarkable that in all the great ciCes, where 
the commercial iatere-ts of the couitry center — 
wh^re prosperity is prosperity to the farmer, and 
where disaster is certain disaster to the farmer-- 
that almost uniformly business men are alarmed 
at the prospect of Greeley's election? Is it re- 
markable that the commercial and business inter- 
ests of the country are almost uniformly rallying 
around the administration which has wrought out, 
for the country such wonderful results, and de- 
manding that there shall be no change? 

FOREIGN POLICY. 

Well, then, if our domestic policy does not need 
reform, does our foreign policy? 

I shall not delay you here. 

Are we not at peace with all the world? 

Mr. Sumner has lately said that "we are in a 
muddle with everybody.” Can you name a gov 
ernment on the globe with which we are in a mud- 
dle? Can any of you name a sea, an island or a 
continent with which we are not at peace, and 
wffieie our flag is not respected? Can any of you 
name a money market in the world where our se- 
curities nre not sought? Cau any of you name a 
power where the rights of American citizens are 
denied. Can you name a power between whicn 
and us there is any contested matter? 


| The treaty with England and the Geneva settle- 
ment, which have been applauded by all people 
as the result of wise statesmanship and advanced 
civilization, leaves us more than mistress of the 
seas v leaves us complete mistress of ourselves. 

My fellow-citizens, 1 have placed before you the 
record of the Republican party, and have f oiiced 
some of its achievements in the past twelve years, 
particularly dwelling upon those under the admin- 
istration now on trial. Is this administration a 
failure? how? in what? Does it need reform? how? 
in what? It is no answer to cry out reform, recon- 
ciliation corruption, bid government. We have a 
right to be told what is wroEg, and what remedy 
should be applied. The American people are a 
race of thoughtful, earnest, ^practical men. They 
demand a reason for everything, and they will 
demand a reason for overthrowing the work 
which I have feebly sketched before they will join 
the Chinese army of gong-beaters and noise-makers 
who seek to hide the merits of this contest out of 
sight by clamor 

GRA£>T uB GREELEY? 

But, m 9 friend^, if this campaign is not to be 
decided by a fair test of the principles aDd record 
or tne two great parties ot the country, it may be 
our adversaries n pe to settle n upon the personal 
merits or demerit- of the car didatos. Be it so. 

GREELEY AND GRANT AS PEACEMAKERS 

Wcois Mr. Gree ey. that he snould bri ;g near 
two million ot Democrats at his feet as worship- 
ers, by the legs rdemam of a few political trick- 
ster^? W nat great service has he ever rendered 
the Democratic party of this country that tbev 
should ad at orcesug hallelujahs to his name? 
Has he charged, or have they changed? If either, 
« ho is ben g sold out? If neither, what sort of 
hybrid combination have we? 

In these pi pi g times of honest government and 
reform, is it not a lut e marvelous that the party 
of reformers ard honest government, par excel- 
lence, should make a combination, to say the 
;east, so suspicious? I admire an honorable ad- 
versary ; I have even admired the persiste cy with 
woich the Dt-mecraiic party fought us curing the 
past ten years, but I can’t help but entertain a 
feeling or contempt for a great party which will 
walk up at the bidding of a few leaders and lay its 
head upon the block I occasionally met the ene 
my during the war disguised in the blue, and 
sometimes carrying the old flag, but I never felt 
that it was honorable warfare, or that, if cap 
tured, they were entitled to quarter. Rut I never 
expected to witness the day when the traditional 
Democratic party, that had ruled this country for 
ilfcv years on bold, marly grounds, would attempt 
to steal into power in tne disguise of an old cast-off 
Republican white coat and hat ! I can justify on 
the law of self preservation, the escape of au 
enemy in his wife’s petticoat, but this amazes me I 

Now, then, you want reconciliation, vou want 
the wounds of the rebellion healed Very well; 
let me show you to what sweet repose you were 
invited bv Mr Greeley. When the war was wagiog 
he expected it would close successfully for toe 
Union. Toe rebel armies were to return to their 
homes. Mr. Greeley naa some idea of reconstruc- 
tion, of mercy ana kindness, which I must read 
you. He said: 

“But, nevertheless, we mean to conquer them— not 
merely to defeat, but to conquer, to subjugate 
them. But when the rebellious traitors are over- 
whelmed in the held, and scatteied like leaves before 
ar angry wird, it must not oe to return to peaceful and 
conteutea tomes they must find poverty at their fire- 
sides, aad see privation in the anxious eyes of mothers 
and the rags of children. ’ ’—[Tribune, May 1, 1861. 

Again tie t-aid : 

“They choose to play the part of traitors, and they 
must pay ihe penally. The worn cut race of emascu- 
lated fmt families must give place to a iturdier people 
whose pioneers are on their way to Washington iu regi- 
ments. An all >tment of land in Virginia would be a 
fitting reward to the brave fellows who have gone to 
tight their country’s battles.”— [Editorial headed 
“Confiscation,” Tribune, April 23, i80J. 

My friends, l have seen our orave men mangled 
and torn bv rebel bullets and carried from the 
field, I have a-en ihem returning from prison - 
pens livi< g skeletons, walking monument- of rebel 
cruelty ; but, sir. never have 1 heard uttered from 
a single Union soldier a sentiment bo diabolical 
and atrocious as this of Mr. Greeley. One of she 


6 


most brilliant men this country has produced, 
Tom Corwin, of Ohio, when the question of war 
with Mexico came up, in a speech of great power 
against the war, said : “If I were a Mexican, as 

I am an American, and your army should invade 
mycouDtrv,I would welcome your soldiers with 
bloody hands to hospitable graves. ’ ’ 

Mr. Corwin never outlived that sentiment; it 
hung about him like the mark of Cain. Beho'd, 
to-day, a candidate for President, supported bv 
the soldiers of the rebellion, who would welcome 
them to poverty, privation, death; and would 
parcel out their homes to the victorious soldiers of 
the North ! 

Contra>- 1 this with the terms of chivalric mag 
nanimitv with which Gsn t Grant clothed his stip 
ulatiop for the surrender of Gen Lee’s army at 
Appamattox Court House. Itlnrk we may, with 
profit, turn back to this lea# of history. After 
disposing of some details, Gen. Grant says : * * The 
arms, artillery, and public pr > per tv, to b* parked 
and stacked, and turned over to the officers a > 
pointed h.v me to receive them 

Thi3 will not embrace the side arms of the officers 
nor them private horses or baggage. 

This done, each officer and man will he allowed 
to return to his home, not to be disturbed by 
United States authority so long as they observe 
their parole and the laws in foice wheie they may 
reside. * ’ 

Aside from the great magnanimity and kindness 
displayed bv Gen Gran in this memorable letter 
to Gen r Lee, it was destined to become the basis 
of legislation, aid I have always felt th t Gen, 
Grant so intended it. 

Here was the pledge of the General in-Chief that 
no authority of the United states should reach 
those brave men, as punishment or revenge, so 
long as they obeyed the laws and kept, their pa- 
role. 

Remember, my friends, we are contrasting these 
two Presidential candidates as to their personal fit- 
ness to enforce measures of reconciliation and 
peace. We have disposed of the parries and their 
platforms. Let me v* mind yon of a Jittie more his- 
tory, After Andrew Johnso- became President, you 
know what bloody work he proposed to make of 
winding up rebellion. Among o*her things, he 
sought the indictment of Gen Lee for treason. 
Gen Lee heard of it, and wrote Gee. Grant, in 
closing an application for a pardon, hut said not 
to present it if proceedings were commenced 
against him, for he would stand the test. Gen 
Grant rep led, and wrote Ge . Lee that he bad 
seen the President a> d protested against, any 
steps bemg taken agairst Gen Lee, a d informed 
him that he considered toe tonoi of the nation 
pledged to him. The President became satished, 
and no proceedings were commenced Gen, Grant 
sent the application for pardon, with a etro g reo 
ommendation that it be granted, but for somt rea 
son it was not. What I am now telling you is on 
toe statement of Reverd.v Johnson, and may be 
founo on page 553, Appendix t.o life of Gen. Lee, 
by J E Cooke, 

Now, my friends, we are contracting the hearts 
of the e candidates If you can find anywhere in 
Mr, Greeley’s writings or speeches one genuine 
kindly sem’iment expre- sed toward the South dur 
ing or since the war until he became afflicted with 
the Presidential fever, you will do more toau 1 
have been able to do. Oa the contrary, if you can 
find one sentiment expre? sect by Gen, Grant during 
or since the war that' is not kind, magnanimous 
and just, you will greatly astonish me, for I can’t 
find it. 

Mr Greeley bailed Jeff. Davie I Was it for re 
spect for the mar , or sympathy for ins sufferings 
in imprisonment? Was it because his kindness of 
heart, or his desire for recor cdiation , moved the 
act? Can this be in the light of Mr Greeley’s ut- 
terance at the time and before and since 

I read from the Tribune , May 13, 1864: “Jeff. 
Daviw has just put forth a fresh mamiesco to the 
dupes he is impoverishing, starving, and killing. 
The bloody-minded villain knows eveiy word of 
this to be false as though it came direct from the 
father of lies. * ’ Again, after Mr. Davis’ arre3t, 
and but a few days before Mr Greeley went on 
his hoed, he wrote in the Tribune tli following: 
“If Mr. Davis is to be tried— as n, seems to us lie 


ought to be — we can imagine no reason for defer- 
ring his trial. ’ ’—[Tribune, Juue 4, 1866. 

Later, and after Mr. Davis had retired to pri- 
vate life, Mr. Greeley pours into his ear consoling 
words of peace and reconciliation after this man- 
ner : 

“Mr. Jefferson Davis has at last found his vocation. 
He made a bad iob of it in ‘founding a nation,’ but he 
seems to fare better as a popular lecturer. The im- 
portance of exploring Jerusalem is the present burden 
of bis song. Likewise the peculiar fitness of English- 
men for that honorable ‘ task. ’ Being thus Orientally 
inclined, he will mxt be heard of , we presume, dis- 
coursiug on ‘Dead Sea fruits ’ Possibly , inceed, he 
may follow that with “The peculiar fitness of Ameri- 
cans (in the Southern States) for their enjoy ment. ’ 
After ibis the “Apple of Sodom;’ and then “The Ten 
Lost Tribes. ’ ’’— [Tribune, November 27, 1868. 

Let nw one quote ihe bailing of Jeff, Davis as 
an evidence of Mr ^Iretley’s great- heartedness 
after this gratuitous and supercilious fling at the 
object of his pretended benevolence. 

GREELEY AND GRANT AS LOYALISTS. 

It is, my friends, a humiliating thing to be call- 
ed upon to expose a former party associate, and 
one who has rendered such eminent service as Mr. 
Greeley has, but his candidacy invites ic and it 
must be made. 

1 do not sav that Mr Greeley was disloyal at 
heart, or wished to see the country divided; but I 
say that he entertained views in favor of the right 
of a State to withdraw from the Union, and ex- 
pre ised them in such unmistakable terms at the 
beginning of r,he lebelhon as to give substantial and 
moral aid to the enemy. His responsibility was 
very great, for he w, s the acknowledged leading 
political writer on the Republican side, and his 
paper was toe mouthpiece and organ of ihe party. 

That he favored secession, is established by his 
own writings, and by them he shall be tried. On 
November 2, 1860, he published a leading editorial, 
in wr ich he said mat— 

“Whenever any considerable section of this 
Uoion shall really insist on getting out of it, we 
snail insist chat they be allowed to go, and we feel 
assured that the North generally cherishes a kin- 
ored determination. So let there be no more 
babble as to the aoility of the Cotton States to 
whip the North, if they will tight, they must hunt 
up some other enemy, for we are not going to tight 
them ’ ’ 

Mark the time; this was before Mr. Li coin’s 
election, and wnen the South were proclaiming 
that if elected mey would withdraw from the 
Union- W nat effect these utterances had upon the 
South I leave for another to ted, wnen I shall have 
given another extract from tms treasonable record. 
In January follo wing he wr* te : 

“As to secession, I have said repeated lv, and here 
repeat, that if the People of the Slave States, 
or of the Cotton States alone really' wish 
TO GET OUT OF THE UNION, I AM IN FAVOR OF 
LETTING THEM OUT, as soon as that result can be 
peacefully and constitutionally attained. But their 
case cannot oe so urgent as to requii e that the Presi- 
dent, and his subordinates should perjure themselves in 
def-rence to its requirements. li they will only be 
patient, not rushing to seize fedeial forts, arsenals, 
arms and sub- treasuries, but take, first, deliberately, 
a tair vote by babot of their own citizens, none being 
coerced or intimidated, and that vote shall indicate a 
sealed resolve to get out of the Union, I WILL 
DO ALL I CAN TO HELP THEM OUT at an early 
dav. [From the New York Tribune of January 1*4, 
1861 . 

Let no man tay we falsely accuse Horace Gree- 
ley of being an original secessionist Here is the 
handwriting on the wall, aod he wrote it himself. 
His course shocked the whole North as it fired the 
hearts of the South. For a no icsb offense Val- 
Jandigham was afterwards driven into the enemy’s 
lines; 

Now then, my friends, as to the effect of these 
utterances on rebe lion, let your own distinguished 
Senator Blair speak 1 quote from the Congress- 
ional Globe of February 17, 1871. 

“We all know, says Senator Blair, of a very dis- 
tinguished man, Alexander H. Stephens. We all know 
that as a member of the Georgia Convention he con- 
tended with eloquence and utility in favor of the Gov- 
ernment of the United State**; and I have been in- 
formed that the only reply which was made to him, 
that e oquent appeal of his to support the government 
was the reading by Mr. Toombs of a paragraph from the 
New York Trioune, in which it was declared that if the 


7 


Southern people chose to secede, they had as much 
right to separate themselves from the Northern States 
as our ancestors had in 1776 to separate themselves 
from the mother country,” 

Senator Howard interrupted the Senator to ask 
him if he regarded the paragraph as furnishing 
Mr. Stephens any justification for his treason, 

Gen Blair replied “Ido not resard that any thing 
justified treason, and I do not think the conduct or' 
the South justified that traitorous expression of 
opinion on the part of the Tribune , for I regard it 
as traitorous. ’ ’ 

Tbe Tribune attempted to snfwer Senator Blair, 
and he returnee to the attack February 20 „ 1871. 

After queuing from the Tribune what I nave 
read r.o you he said : 

“Words were never uttered more fatal than those to 
the peace of the country. Mr. Stephens w as defeated 
in his effort to prevent secession in Georgia by a few 
votes onlv, and nothing is more certain than that these 
were obtained bv Mr. Greeley’s declaration that se- 
cession was rightful and would be peaceable. Who, 
then, is more dirt ctly responsible than Mr. Greeley, 
and tnose who acted with him at the North, for the 
blood which has drenched this land; aid who is more 
resnonsinle for the vindictive spirit which animates the 
dominant paity in the proscription which has pursued 
and is still pursuing the whole people of the South? Nor 
was Mr. Greeley’s reiterated advice the result of 
honest error. No man understood better than be did 
tbe use that would be made of bis declarations and how 
effective they would be in promoting disunion ” 

Who can doubt this portraiture? Gen. Biair is a 
bold man , and, I believe, an honest and frank 
man. When he quarreled with tne Republican 
party, he oid rot n^ng upon its skirts m der tr e 
guise of Liberal Republican . and stab it in the 
back in tbe house of its fiiends but be went over 
at once to the only other party reinair mg. What 
astonishes me is, mat he can to-day support Gree- 
ley in the face of this record 

Now, my friends, I have given you Greeley’s 
record, written by himself, arc! I have given its 
influence upon rebellion, as drawn by one of bis 
friends. If this war settled anything, it settled 
this one doctrine of the rigntof a State to secede 
And yet we are struggling again before tbe ue p ! e 
to prevent the election as Chit f M&gn tr*te of ihe 
man of all otheiv in tb * North most responsible for 
tbe rebellion, if Gen. Blair is right. 

Say wbat you will; treat the idea derisively if 
you may; but we have in this campaign the doc 
trine of secession as an issue If Mr Gretley is 
elected, and a House of Representives m harmony 
with him, I do not say we shall have secession, but 
I do say it would be possible 

Suppose Georgia or Texas should, bv a f ir ex 
pression of the people, voie m favor of withdraw- 
ing from the Union, would Mr, Greeley keep them 
in by force ? Would his House of Representatives 
vote supplies to carry on a war to coerce lliem? I 
hope so; but is it not better to try no experiments 
at this time ? 

Now, my friends, let us turn from this dark and 
forbidding picture, and contrast with it the record 
and views of Gen. Grant. 

You will pardon me, I know, if I read you an 
extract from a letter written by Gen Grant to bis 
father, while be was a cadet at West Point He 
was then seyerteen. Let us see how tbe twig was 
bent and how the tree inclined. He says : 

“I am rendered serious by the impressions that 
crowd upon me here at W est Point. My thoughts are 
frequently occupied with tne hatred I am made to feel 
toward traitors to my country as I look around me ni 
the memorials that remain of the black-hearted trea- 
son of Arnold. I am lull of a conviction of sco T n and 
contempt, which my young and inexperienced pen is 
unable to write in this ittter, toward tbe conduct of 
any man wno, at any time, could strike at tbe liberties 
of such a nation as this; if, like Arnold, they shoulc 
■ecretly seek to sell our national inheritance for Ihe 
mess of potage of wealth or po^er, or section— West 
Point sternly reminds me wbat you, mv father, would 
have your son do. As I stand here in this National 
Fort, a student of arms under our country’s flag, I 
know full well how you would have me act in such an 
emergency. I trust my future conduct in such an hour 
would prove worthy the patriotic instruction you have 
given. ” 

Here was tbe heart of an American youth glow- 
ing with patriotism, and imbibing iesi-orrs that 
were to serve bim at an unexpected time. The 
boy was father to the man. W hen war was de- 
clared with Mexico, Lieut. Grant made good his 


word; and again, when treason stalked abroad in 
the land, the fire of his West Point youth came 
back to bim. He modestly tendered his service 
and commenced as a recruiting officer. The fire 
of genius soon kindled within him, he was given 
a coma and, and victory after victory added fresh 
laurels t ) his valor and great ability. 

Let me read you a brief synopsis of his career, 
as given by Horace Greeley : 

“From the beginning to the end of that struggle, 
Ulysses S. Grant rose through every grade known to 
our service. A poor , obscure, friendless private citi- 
zen, he volunteered at tho outset, and was chosen Cap- 
tain of a company He was soon made Adjutant, then 
Colonel, then Brigadier-General, then Major-General, 
then Lieutentant General; finally General-in-Chief. 
Y( t nobody ever lie*rd of his asking for abetter post. 
In every case of his promotion be took tbe position 
wherein be was wanted— noone ev r heard of his want- 
ing a better one than he already hac . ‘Friend, come 
up higher. ’ was the mandate addressed totbislowlv 
servant of tbe Republic— not that be wanted promo- 
tion, but that the countiy sore'y ueedec the right man 
in the right place. He favored no ‘policy’ but the 
crushing out of tbe rebellion. He bad no conception 
of dutv that led him to legard tbe Federal Executive 
with distrust or disfavor. In short. Grant quieily re- 
ceived his orders, and to the extent of i is ability, exe- 
cuted iliem. It will be tbe fault of tbe pee pie if this 
species of generalship is not more common hereafter.” 
— [Trioune, duly 22d , 1868. 

Cadet Grant’s letter was prophetic. The time 
came when he was to .strike a blow for the salva- 
tion of his country. The time came when the pa- 
triotic instructions of his father were to be put to 
the test. He acied promptly ; and history has al- 
ready accorded to bim the first place among the 
army of patiiots who preserved the country from 
overthrow With no personal hatred of individu- 
als engaged in tebeJlion, but odi\ hatred of trea- 
son , bis conduct at the b- ginning, during and 
since the war, has been in such marked contrast to 
tbe ei<r y disloyalty of Horace Greeley and his 
subsequent supercilious and brutal course to- 
wards not only r« be, bon but individual rebels, 
that i hey stand out as distinct typt s— a Hyperion 
to Satyr. 

Can there be any hesitation as to which of these 
two men can be most safely trusted as loyalists? 

GRANT OR GREELEY AS FINANCIERS. 

Mr. Greeiey makes great pretensions as a finan- 
cial adviser Gereral Grant upon this subject 
m>ikes no pretensions beyond results he reaches 
bv applying the strong common sense with which 
he h- guild to the experience of the coumr.y and 
the facts he can gather from the best sources. 
Mr. Greeley notoriously advises with no one. He 
is cogmat ; cal and dictatorial on Hue as on all other 
subjects. You know some of his vagaries on the 
question ef national currency. Perhaps we may 
profitably recall some of his views. 

GREENBACKS. 

He first opposed the legal-tender act, as he had 
opposed the war, and afterwards was as violently 
in favor of the act as he was in favor of slaugh- 
tentg rob'd s without mercy Let me not do him 
i- justice. On the 10th of February, 1862, he 
said : 

“ We shiver on the brink of a bottomless abyss 
of shinplaster circulation. Confirms must pro- 
vide funds for the vigorous and immediate prose- 
cution of the war for the Union, a* d it, seems we 
must take tbe short and easy method of making 
Treasury notes a legal tender. We utterly dissent 
from flits conclusion ” 

On February 19, 1864, he said: 

“When we hear it said that the government 
ought, to have maintained, or ought now to resume, 
specie payments, we know that the speaker means 
we ought to give up the contest and let the rebels 
triumph. ’ ’ 

With tbe vast issue of legal-tender notes busi- 
ness ♦ xpanoed , piiees advanced, and purchases 
were made at double and treble their former value ; 
a limited amount of gold was he<d m the Treasury, 
aud every business man saw that sudden resump- 
tion of specie pay ments and redemption of green - 
backs would inevitably ruin the country and pros- 
trate business; and yet at the very time when this 
condition of things was most critical Mr, Greeley 
came out with his famous idea of 


8 


RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENT, 

and demanded that “the way to resume is to re- 
sume,” and he has keot up the crv to this day. 
At that time gold was worth a large premium, and 
we hadn’t gold enough in the whole country to 
have redeemed the greenbacks in Wall street 
alone. 

IMMEDIATE PAYMENT OF THE DEBT; INCOME 

TAX. 

On June 5, 1867, he said : 

“ We believe in taxing so as to pay the debt in ten 
years To oo this the national revenue should be 
$500,000,000 p( r annum, or the same as in 1866 
Here, for example, are a good many thousands of 
our people wro have incomes from $10,000 to 
$1,000,000 per annum Suppose these were to pay ten 
per cent income tax . What of it?’ * &e. 

In Jur.e, 1863, he said : “One of the fairest and 
most productive sources of British revenue is the 
income tax, ” &c , and be urges it as necessary 
and right;. December 10, 1769, he said : “We do 
not believe there is a tax levied by the government 
so onerous upoo so large a class of people as the 
income tax. It ie not equal ; its exactions are un- 
just, and it discriminates «gamst persons of limited 
means.” Again, June 26, he say<* : “The income 
tax is one of the worst ever levied, 5 ’ &c. 

GOLD GAMBLING. 

Mr. Greeley also undertook to regulate gold 
gambling He came to Wa hington and urged the 
passage of what was known as the “Greeley Gold 
Lav,” which was approved Jure 17,1864. Od 
the 18th of June, 1864, gold sold at 195, and it rose 
steadily until, on the twenty ninth of the same 
month, it reached 250, and it became necessary to 
abobsh the law, which was done by act approved 
July 2, 1864. 

Now, my friends, Ido not quarrel with a man 
for making mistakes. I do not fif’d fault with a 
man for changing his opinions. But I ask you, is 
it wise to place at the head of the nation a mao 
who has been on both sides of almost every fman 
cial questio , as well as political; a man who rash- 
ly t^kes up theories involving nun vital import * 
ance? Where wou d we have been during the 
war with Horace Greeiey as President? 

What business man would entrust ms private 
interests in the hands of this man? 

Is it not cf infinitely greater importance that a 
steady man should be at the helm thao one filled 
with the wiliest vagaries and hobbies on everv 
subject? 

Do we need a man of impetuous judgment, of 
hasty conclusions, of brihiant, if you please, but 
wayward ana changeful notions? 

Or do we ne< d a mun of strong common sense, 
of devotion to the whole people, of calm but firm 
judgment, f . ee from hobbies and notions, and that 
brings as nearly as possible a judicial opinion to 
direct our public affaire? 

Take up Gen Gra- t’s messages, read them , and 
answer me whether the mind which dictated them 
is not a safer em to guide us thao tnat one which 
I have aesenbed and shown to be possessed by 
Horace Greeley. 

THE EXECUTIVE SPHERE . 

Most Presidents have gravely erred in having a 
legislative policy ; that is. a policy which they felt 
it a duty io enforce to the extent of overawing or 
cajoling Congress. This was Andrew Johnson’s 
fatal m stake. On the contrary , Ge». Grant con 
ceived the true idea of the P<eeide*tial character, 
and expressed it in his inaugural with great clear- 
ness He said : “I shall on all subjects have a 
policy to recommend but none to enforce against 
the will of tbe people Laws are to govern all 
alike, those opposed as well as those who favor 
them. I know of no method to secure the repeal 
of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their 
stringent execution.” 

No man has ever served as President with a 
truer conception of the proper sphe* e of that high 
office than President Grant has shown. 

He was accused by Mr burnt er of usurpation 
in the San Domingo maiUr. and ibis is urged to 
day as contradicting tneview I have just expressed 
of his character, Nothing is further from the 
truth. 


SAN DOMINGO AFFAIR. 

I must not allow myself to follow all the libels 
and misrepresentation of the President They 
have long since been exploded, Our campaign is 
an affirmative One. We are not on the defensive. 
But tbe matrer has been treated w ith great gravity 
and I will notice it. 

San Domingo is one of the most fertile of the 
West Indies. It has a small population which bad 
succeeded in estab’ishlcg a republic. They were un- 
willing to attempt the development of their natural 
resources alone, and therefore sent an agent to 
the United States with authority to make some 
terms of annexation to this government. The 
President made no reply. A second agent came 
and stated that unless they could come under 
our protection they would look to some 
European alliance. Gen. McClellan, Admiral 
Porter, and others equally distinguished, had 
previously examined the resources or the coun- 
try, and had stated strongly the aovantages of the 
island as a coaling depot, a naval station, a mili- 
tary aev to Me Gulf of Mexico, and as capable of 
producing large quantities of sugar, coffee, rice, 
dye stufl'e, mahogany and other products; besides 
possessing large fields of copper, iron, goid and 
sale 

With this information, the President could not 
refuse to listen to the proposition. 

He sent a discreet commission to make a secret 
examination and report. They satisfied the Presi- 
dent, and he put a proposition into the form of a 
treaty. 

He called upon Mr. Sumner, treating him with 
great deference, to ascertain his views and to 
know whether he would support the proposition. 
Mr. Snmntr denies that he gave the Prt sident a 
promise of support. But there wtre two wit- 
nesses present who say he did so promise, and I 
read from tbe testimony of one of them, Coi» For- 
ney , a life-long friend and admirer of Mr Sum- 
i er: 

“I was pr* rent at Mr Sumner’s residence when 
Presided Gian* called and explained t.< e Dominican 
trea y to the Senator, and although T Ceimoi recal the 
exact w ords ot tlie latter 1 i.nderstoou him to say that 
In would most cheerfully supt ort t< e treaty. At tbe 
President’s roqae? t , I remained >o hear liis ex pi na- 
tion, and I am free io say th*t such is m\ deep regard 
for Mr. Sumner that his indorsement of the treaty 
went very far to stimulate me in giving it my sup- 
port,” 

Afterwards, from some cause, Mr Sumner 
changed his mind ; became hostile to the President 
and secretary Fish; denounced ihem both bitterly 
and persos ally, and moie than intimated that the 
President was guilty of vena ity; ana finally in 
hi great pliillippic against against the President, 
demanded his impeachment. 

Togo back: So much was said in criticism of 
the annexation idea that it was proposed to send 
three commissioners to investigate the wrote mat- 
ter. Congiess finally authorized tr is Mr. Wade, 
Dr. Howe of Boston and President White of Cor- 
nell University, New York, wire sent Neither of 
them was known to have expressed an opinion one 
way or the other, 

Tne report was made, ard furnishes valuable 
n alter for the study of our people. It set at rest 
forevei all the slanderous repoits set afloat about 
jobbing, and urged tbe acquisition of San Domin- 
go upon the Senate and the country. 

Gen. Grant had done his duty , and it only re- 
mained to submit the report io Congress, which 
he did in a message that will live as a monument 
to his manliness, while it wnl forever stume his 
traduce rs. As this is but another evidence of 
Gen. Gram’s conception of the Presidential office, 
i will read you a paragraph from that message. 

“I he mere rejection by the Senate of a treaty nego- 
tiated by the President only ind cates a ciiierence of 
opinion between two co-ordinate departments of the 
government without toucLing tlie character or wound- 
ing the pride of either. But when such rejection 
takes place simultaneously with charges,! penl> made, 
of corruption on the,, part ©f the President, or those 
employed bv him, the case is different. In such case 
the hoi or of the nation demands investigation. This 
has been accomplished by tlie report of the i ommis- 
sioners herewith transmit' ed. and which tully vindi- 
cate lhe purity of the motives an ! action of those who 
represented the United States in the negotiation. And 
now my ta3k is finished, and with it ends all personal 
solicitude upon the sunject. 


9 


“My duty being 1 done, yours begins; and I gladly 
hand over the whole matter to the judgment of the 
American people, and of their Representatives, in 
Congress assembled The facts will now be spread be- 
fore the country, and a decision rendered by that 
tribunal whose convictions so seldom err, and against 
whose will I have no policy 10 enforce. ” 

Thus melts away in the glare of tne truth what 
the great Liberal, Sumner, and your own Senator 
Schurz thought a cause for impeachment. And 
so it would be with all tbe charges of usurpation, 
corruption, nepotism, g:fc taking^ and their 
kindred slanders, ad nauseam, if the people were 
not already tired of this “damnable iteration” by 
Liberal Democrats. In heaven’s name, letus 
have done some time with this vile rjersonal de- 
traction 

But, Mr Chairman , I was calling attention to 
Gen. Giant’s views, as we find them in our State 
papers, to contrast them with Mr Greeley’s, as 
giv n in his published works, when I was divert- 
ed by the San Domingo matter Now, I assert 
that you cannot find in the whole volume of ex- 
ecutive Messages those of anv President that for 
clearness and frankness of statement, for com- 
prehensiveness of the needs of the nation at the 
time he writes, for honesty of purpose and sin- 
cerity of motive, any that excel those of President 
Grant. 

He ha? spoken upon Education , The Working 
man , Agriculture , Commerce, Manufactures, Tariff 
Reform , Indian Policy , Protection to Immigrants . 
Payment and Refunding the National Debt, Re- 
sumption of Specie Payment, Our Relations with 
Germany, Our Foreign Policy, The Monroe Doc 
trime , the Land Grant l olicy. Amnesty and Re 
construction Toly gamy, National Postal Telegraph 
System, Civil Service Reform The Executive Policy , 
and other matters. 

.On all these subjects he has discoursed as frankly 
as he would at his fireside upon the most ordinary 
tonic; and yet, in a campaign the most searching 
I have ever witnessed , when the very sewers are 
dragged for material with which to attack him, 


President Grant’s messages furnish no ground ©f 
assault, and are absolutely invulnerable, 

I say they show genuine statesmanship; I say 
they prove conclusively that General Grant has 
great capacity for civil duties, and the future will 
record of his first four years as President, what- 
ever it may of his second, that “he was no less 
renowned in peace than in war. ’ ’ 

Living, as I do, at the national capital, within a 
sto e’s thro wot the Executive Mansion ;honored as 
I have been with some personal acquaintance with 
the man, not only during the war, but since his 
residence at the capital; seeing him frequently, 
sometimes socially, sometimes officially, at all 
hours of the day and night, I declare to you that I 
never knew, in public station, a more upright man 
in his daily walk, a more unselfish, devoted and 
sincerely patriotic officer in my life — Abraham Lin- 
coln not excepted. If he has had a base or un- 
worthy motive in any action, official or otherwise, 
1 have cot discovered it. If he has an ambition 
beyond that which guided him in the army, and 
subsequently led him to resign the high position of 
General-in-chief and accept the Presidency, 1 have 
not discovered it. 

* ‘Gen. Grai t is as thoroughly a citizen to day, 
as perfectly civilian in his habits, as any man in 
the country. We think of no one in public sxatiou 
who represents more fully t e idea of the American 
gentleman. Unostentatious, unassuming, brave, 
without ambition, forbearing, resolute in doing 
what he deems to be right, but never offensive m 
asserting himself, Gen Grant is a man of the 
people-one in heart and feeling with the men who 
dig and plow and weave.” 

No less a personage than Horace Greeley thus 
commended our candidate to the country m 1869, 
and as such a man to-day I commend him to you 
for the Presidency 

“I venture to suggest that Gen. Grant will be far 
better qualified for that momentous trust m 1872 
than be was in 1868.” Tbus spoke the sage of 
Chappaqua in 1871, and thus I say to you. 


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LB Ag ’12 






